Cheap Certain Fury (Video) (Stephen Gyllenhaal) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Certain Fury

nothing's black or white when you're fighting for your life
This film directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal is only interesting in that it presents two female protagonists, pre-empting his later preference for female actors, eg Barbara Hershey. There is enough rough housing - beatings, rape, fire, flood, rats, drugs, chase, guns - for action fans and the dramatic plot doesn't slow things down too much. However given that the main characters are female, screenwriter Michael Jacobs unfortunately subjects them both to extended humiliations.
The incident which sets Irene Cara and Tatum O'Neal on the lam is poorly if campily staged, a courtroom gunbattle where the police are exposed as clods, and the idea that they have no reason to run since they are not responsible for the gunfire is soon dubiously rationalised by the death of a pursuing policeman.
Jacobs idea of social commentary is having Moses Gunn as Cara's doctor father pontificating "I can go into an operating room, take out the bad part, and it's healed. How do you cut this off?". There is also a laugh line in response to his tale of Cara retreating to her room upon her mother's death with "You probably didn't realise how serious it was". Plus having two women trying to survive in the sleazy underworld, it's no surprise how many times they are referred to as "witch".
The inverted casting of O'Neal as a streetkid and Cara as a middle class student is unexpected, though O'Neal is hardly convincing, given her face and pedigree. Her slumming only extends to having dyed her hair red to go with her name Scarlett, and swearing. Cara is the stronger performer though has little material to shine with - the best she can do is sing the title song over the credits, which she co-wrote. Peter Fonda has one scene with O'Neal, where he calls her a "spoilt little girl", and which ends in disfigurement.
We aren't told about O'Neal's past, how long she has been on the street, and this then makes us question the glamour photo of her that appears in the newspaper. However Gyllenhaal creates an atmospheric candle-lit drug palace, even if we are told it's a place where guns are prohibited, and where someone who has molested one of the heroines and tried to kill the other is suddenly shown concern for a hot predicament.

---

Irene and Tatum pair well as first adversaries then friends.
The first film that Irene did after "Fame", being a fan of both stars, you will enjoy this film. Despite holes in the plot, the two stars give good performances. Irene as rich daddy's girl looking for attention and Tatum as poor girl looking to survive they make you believe in both of their struggles.